A group of queer activists were assaulted by Trump supporters while leaving the Decolonize this Place closing at Artists Space over the weekend. One of the most troubling things about this story, which no one seems to be talking about, is that the attackers sound like off-duty police or military based on their description. [Hyperallergic]

The Denver Art Museum claims it will use a light hand during renovations of its iconic building. That’s great news—the structure is the only North American work completed by architect Gio Ponti and it’s a singularly weird masterpiece. [Dezeen]

In today’s awful political climate, it’s nice to hear about a (mostly) good guy. Senator Harry Reid and artist Michael Heizer have become allies in an effort to protect Nevada’s environmental assets, including Heizer’s massive earthwork “City,” [Los Angeles Times]

Jerusalem’s Bezalel Academy of Art is mired in controversy (with some opponents wanting the school shut down) after a student depicted prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a naked king with a noose around his tiny junk. [International Business Times]

Poissy, the Parisian suburb home to the iconic Villa Savoye, is getting a Le Corbusier museum. [artnet News]

Okay, now that we’re on the brink of September, New York is coming back to life. And what a life it is—from anarchist spots in Bushwick to mansions in the Bronx, holograms on Governors Island to museums is Astoria—we’ve dug deep to find you the best, weirdest, and most under-represented stuff to do this week across the city.

Tuesday is your last chance to see Cao Fei’s solo show at PS1, and she’s speaking at Pratt that evening. So take a G train jaunt from the museum to the Pratt campus and also catch the closing reception for their Fine Arts MFA thesis exhibition before the talk. Wednesday, get digital u/dys-topian thinking with the surreal architectural images of Dionisio Gonzalez at Galerie Richard and the new Anarcho Tech Collective at The Base. Thursday, Carolina Nitsch Project Room is hosting two projects spanning 50 years of collective Art & Language, and Zak Krevitt’s solo show at Ray Gallery takes viewers inside the world of the “puppy play” fetish.

Friday, the Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum in the Bronx is throwing an opening reception for its centennial garden celbration. The museum has commissioned over a dozen sculptures to respond to sites in its formal gardens. Saturday, head to another overlooked landmark across town: the Governor’s Island Art Fair is bringing work such as Julia Maria Sinelnikova glittery, tech-heavy installations to the historic Colonel’s Row. Then, World Money Gallery is hosting a two-artist salute to Bushwick’s litter (the last line of defense against gentrification?). Finally, spend Sunday unwinding in the serene Noguchi Museum, but don’t worry about spending money—it’s a free admission “Community Day.”

There’s finally no excuse to be bored this week. It’s a big city out there. Go explore!

Ayanda Mabulu’s extremely-NSFW painting of South African president Jacob Zuma… which we have censored with a Pokemon.

While giving her speech at the Republican National Convention last night, Melania Trump plagiarized an entire paragraph from Michelle Obama’s 2008 Democratic Convention speech. The campaign just straight up denies this happened. It’s insane. [CNN]

Resource for artists and professionals: Clarion List has links to things you need often like framers and things that are extremely specialised like art risk consultants. [Clarion List]

Parviz Tanavoli, the Iranian pop artist who was mysteriously detained earlier this month has had his passport returned to him and he is free to travel. He promptly left Tehran for Vancouver. [The Art Newspaper]

Wow, two days in a row we get something dumb from Jonathan Jones, what are the odds? Today, he enlightens everyone on the topic of “artwashing.” It’s a tough subject that Jones breaks down for you like this, “There is such a thing as civilisation – and it has a way of looking a bit like “gentrification.” Yes, low-income neighborhoods are uncivilized. This makes art look bad. [The Guardian]

The Prado’s Hieronymus Bosch exhibition marks one of the only times in the past five centuries that this many of the artist’s works are together in one place. Insane. [New York Post]

“When I see Ayanda Mabulu, I am going to wrap my fingers around his neck and throttle him.” -Edward Zuma, son of South African president Jacob Zuma on a painter who has criticised the administration. [News24]

17 buildings by Le Corbusier have been designated world heritage sites by UNESCO, including the the National Museum of Western Art, in Tokyo and the Unité d’habitation in Marseille. [Curbed]

The de Blasio administration has tapped Toronto’s Adam Giambrone as the new Brooklyn-Queens “Streetcar Czar”. Let’s hope Giambrone has learned what makes streetcars suck so much from Toronto’s example: trains don’t do well in mixed traffic. Seriously, every time a car double parks or hits a train the whole damn system gets held up. Why do people keep talking about streetcars like they’re the technology of the future? They made sense in the Victorian era when they didn’t have to share the road with someone’s Hummer. If this idea is going to be remotely usable in New York, they’re going to have to close the streets and give this baby signal prioritization. [Curbed]

I keep a folder of images on my desktop, culled from internet searches and random meanderings around the net. There isn’t much curation involved in these images, and I’m not always sure why an image calls to my collection, but themes arise nonetheless. A unifying quality is the bleak reality that’s laid bare by the breakdown of a system– bygone expressions of power like Brutalist architecture, panopticons, and military camouflage. I feel ambivalent about these images, uncomfortable with taking pleasure in the aesthetic forms that hides insidious subtexts.

U.S. paint brush manufacturers, the subject of Economist Adam Davidson’s latest column in the New York Times Magazine, have taken a hit since the economy crashed. Chinese competition has taken a chunk of their market, but these businesses have stayed alive through specialization. [The New York Times Magazine]

Charles Saatchi was caught choking his wife Nigella Lawson outside a restaurant. He voluntarily turned himself into the police for a “caution”. No charges have been pressed. [The Guardian]

New York Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman says the Le Corbusier show at MoMA is overwhelming thanks to its sheer size, but still finds the show riveting. Le Corbusier had some fascinating ideas, good and bad. [The New York Times]

The Metropolitan Museum of art will present Janet Cardiff’s “Forty-Part Motet” at the Cloisters this fall. This isn’t something anyone in the city should miss. [Met Museum via Brian Sholis]

Ai Weiwei Skyped with Laurie Anderson to create art. We are linking to the video record of the performance just so that you know how uninspiring hearing Ai Weiwei chat about China over drone music really is. Starts at 13:35. [Luminato Festival, via @aiwwenglish]

Now on view at Arsenal Gallery, Benson’s collaged paintings of Central Park playgrounds depict the now out of use playgrounds of post-Robert Moses Central Park. Laura Mallonee suggests that just calling attention to these parks is a step towards repairing them, making a better New York for inner-city children. [Hyperallergic]